The Folding Halls of Halas
→ For the similarly named episode, see . is an extra-dimensional manor with about one hundred interconnected rooms, created by the archmage Halas in the Age of Arcanum. Halas created a special key called the Heirloom Sphere whose ever-changing clockwork puzzles serve as the key to entering the Halls. The time inside of the Halls is different than on the Material Plane. Approximately one day passes in the Material Plane for each hour spent in the Halls, although the various chambers may not be consistent. 'Interior' The rooms in the dungeon are connected by passageways with an extraplanar essence, functioning like mini teleportation circles. The Halls are protected by mage hunter golems. A blue dragon guarded one exit of the manor in exchange for food. Other dangerous creatures exist within the manor as well. Tapestry Entrance This entrance is a stone room with four pillars. Twelve feet off the ground are four different colored banners (red, green, blue, and black) hanging on the walls parallel to each other. All the banners have the symbol of Halas in gold in the center. * The blue banner hides a stone dragon statue with sapphires for eyes. When the banner is moved the statue emits a blue electrical energy. * The green banner hides a statue of a sickly, bloated humanoid creature. When the banner is moved a green poisonous gas fills the chamber. * The red banner hides a red wooden door with the symbol of Halas painted on it. When the lock is picked, a magical flame bursts out and the door can be opened. This door leads to the Study. * The black banner presumably hides a statue linked to the "wailing creature". It is also the passageway to the Dining Room. As shown on the map Yussa Errenis made of The Folding Halls of Halas presented to the Mighty Nein in . Diamond Entrance This entrance is a diamond-shaped chamber with turquoise colored marble. On the ceiling is a relief sculpture of a curving tower encircling a humanoid figure without a face. The tower resembles a twisted tree that’s been bent forcefully bent into a U with a series of smaller branches shooting off of it. Within the design, windows, little doorways, and small gears are constructed. There are two archways opposite of each other each with a trim: one silver and one gold. The gold arch smells of earth and greenery and leads to The Garden. The silver arch leads to the Guest Chamber. The Study The Study is a seventy-foot tall chamber full of books, desks, and cabinets. One cabinet was actually a mimic and animated when touched. Above one of the desks is a twelve-foot tall, six-foot wide picture of Halas sitting in a chair. In the desk was a jar of glass beads, a large vial of ink, and a small porcelain doll with oddly realistic hair. One of the walls has a forty-foot tall, fifty-foot wide stained glass window up one level of ladders. The stained glass window has a layout of the planes: the Ethereal Plane, Astral Plane, and four Elemental Planes are all pictured. There is no Divine Gate shown on the window , indicating this design may be over 800 years old and pre-Calamity. It has a small, red circle within the Astral Plane that is not tethered to anything. By touching the red circle , a person is transported to the Dragon Guard Exit. Dragon Guard Exit This chamber is an arrow-shaped chamber with dark hallways. The chamber is filled with gold, gems, bone fragments, a pedestal, and in the middle a circular stone raised platform. The platform functions as the entrance to the chamber from The Study. The pedestal is in shadow with an orb set onto it. At the end of both hallways is a green-blue crystal set in an alcove that absorbs cold energy. Across the floor are grooves that feed the energy from the crystals to the pedestal. The Garden The Garden is a lush tropical jungle with a waterfall pouring down a massive mountainside cliff cascading into a small murky pool. Amongst the dozens of thick jungle trees, are various bits of fauna and ferns that have heavily overgrown the base and the floor. The cliff is sheer, and 60-65 feet up, there is a slight outcropping of stone with a small cave. The cave continues inward about ten feet and winds down to a 15 feet wide and 8 feet tall tunnel, before it shrinks down to a five foot tall, two foot wide. This functions as an pathway leading to the Tower Machine. Behind the waterfall is an slight opening. with a six or seven feet deep cavern. Against the back rock wall is a soft dark burgundy doorway with a hexagon carvings on it. This door leads to The Study. The murky 30 feet deep pool is thick with algae that turns into a vortex and continues down into darkness deeper below In a tree is a foot wide and four feet tall knot functions as an archway. The pathways into the pool and tree is not yet specified to with rooms they lead. There are multiple creatures living in the garden: soft little motes of dancing Scribe Mites that are attracted towards magic for food , bullywugs , and a froghemoth. Tower Machine The Tower is an immense curving clockwork tower in the middle of an endless expanse of nothingness with a walkway spiraling up and down its length. Flashes of purple lightning illuminate the area. The Tower is of strange shape and design. There are offshoot chambers and bits of brass and platinum bent around adamantine pistons. There are various sized pieces of rock floating around the tower. Along the tower is a 10-15 foot stone and metal ledge that functions as a walkway. It got gears protruding at intervals from the tower, blocking that walkways. Along the walkway are mechanical pieces that have a crackling blue type of energy that is whirring and spinning, as it's powering the machine, or it's keeping energy at bay. There are a few pathways from the Tower Machine. The lowest known doorway is on a floating island emanating a purplish glow , that leads to the Arcane Armory. 250 feet above it is a doorway on the side of the tower that leads to The Garden. 150 feet above that is a circular brown wooden doorway with a faint green-blue halo that leads to the Golem workshop. The Tower Machine appears to be the central structure of the Folding Halls, with the other demiplanar rooms somehow bound to the Tower. Arcane Armory A long 40-foot by 100-foot hallway lined with pillars and lit by ever-burning green torches, the Arcane Armory only has a double set of heavy metal doors that is the only exit onto an island orbiting the Tower Machine. Midway across the large room is a 15-foot trapped area which triggers two arcane cannons at the end of the hall. Behind the cannons are multiple crates and several magical items. Arcane Cannons The cannons are made of an ivory type of wood without striations, that have similar glowing elements to a strange machinery in Gelidon's lair. On top of the cannons are few levers, a small chair, and 5 buttons: deep green (acid), red (fire), light blue (frost), intense blue (lightening), and dull green (poison). When triggered they shoot massive amounts of arcane energy, that is continuously fed through the floor. Golem Workshop The Workshop is a square chamber with rounded corners, a cluttered workshop with all sorts of implements for carving, chiseling, molding, and bending. There are four granite tables facing each other from an open center, and in the middle of the floor is a big stone slab with a bunch of dull carvings in it. There are large boxes containing raw and partially smoothed stone boulders resting at one of the corners, and ingots of dark green adamantine sitting near a rune-encrusted anvil that sits to the right side of the chamber at the foot of a blue-flamed forge. There are books with design elements scattered across the chamber, developed by Halas, as specifically designed for the construction of the Folding Halls. In front of the forge stands a massive green metal golem, standing about 12-feet tall, made from the same material as the ingots, one arm ending in a long set of hooked tongs, and the other in a deadly looking hammer. The golem functions as a help by forging. There are two doorways in this workshop, one to the Tower Machine and one on the other side of the room marked by a simple gray door that leads to the Experiment Chambers. Experiment Chamber The Experiment Chamber is a dark and damp chamber that is lit with a faint flickering green light coming from glowing orbs that are affixed to portions of the wall. There are chains hanging from the ceiling, and a very faint rhythmic beating sound that can be felt as a thrum in the floor. In the center are ten 9-foot-tall glass pillars set at different elevations. They are frosted from the inside by a murky liquid and have rotting corpses within. Three of them are broken. The corpses appear to be experiments of Halas to try to create the perfect clone harnessing the regenerative powers of the Permaheart. Three doorways lead to this room: a door to the Golem Workshop , a dark wooden door with a polished iron frame and a cut purple gem embedded in the center to the The Dreadnought, and a plain brass door to the Heart Study. Heart Study The study is a cramped trapezoidal room with grey stone walls, against which are placed shelves filled with jars of nondescript organic matter that pulses on the same heartbeat that fills the chamber. There is a massive central roller desk, filled with all manner of scattered research notes, sketches, and small tools. Above the desk is an iron chandelier with ever-burning candles. In the middle of the chamber is a red carpet lying on the hardwood floor. Under it is a trapdoor triggered by moving a lantern on the shelves. This door leads to the Permaheart. Another door is within an alcove that leads to the Experiment Chamber. Permaheart The Permaheart chamber is a low-lit triangular room made of dark red stone that "glistens with moisture and smells strongly of iron," where Halas sealed away the Permaheart within a container lined with arcane glyphs. This room can only be reached through the Heart Study. In its center is a gigantic heart held in a glass container bearing glyphs. Chains that were once affixed to the glass are now broken and loose across the ground, and heavy veins of flesh from the heart have rooted themselves into the stone throughout the entire chamber. There are faint glowing glyphs at each corner. The heart itself is beating, sending out a nauseous pulse with each beat. The Dreadnought Gravity holds no sway here. The room is a formless sea of silvery mists and curling winds with soft gray and white dots like stars in a night sky. The entry door is on a massive island of cerulean rock, to which are tethered chains binding a massive Astral Dreadnaught. Its eye is covered and its two enormous claws are bound to its side. In the corners of its mouth are two heavy chains that connect the sides of its mouth to two large levers to each side of the door. One of the levers appears to release all the chains, and the other causes the beast to open its mouth, allowing entry to its Demiplanar Donjon. A second door is located about thirty feet below the first, presumably leading to the Crystal Mines. The Donjon The Dreadnought's Demiplanar Donjon is a cavernous dark chamber, too large to see the far walls. The floor is stone, and there are distant sconces of burning torches and candelabras set in the center around a small arranged set of tables. The exit is through a Circle of Plane Shift on the ceiling. The Circlebound Chamber The Circlebound Chamber is a dark, charcoal-colored room. Deep red tapestries hang from the walls, depicting elements of the Blood War between devils and demons. All sorts of massive, grotesque, violent and detailed displays of carnage between the two warring factions of fiends surround the interior of the chamber. A blood-soaked table sits next to a rough-hewn stone door that holds all manner of gruesome cutting and carving tools. There is also a large empty basket equally splattered with dried gore. A few small tables and a single shelf line the edges of the room. In the center of the room is a 15-foot circle of dull burning purple light, holding a captive mad horned devil. The Prison of Soot The Prison is reached down a long stone staircase without walls descending through blackness filled with distant stars. At the bottom is a cold, dark, circular room about 60-feet across, with dark slate-colored brushed steel walls, granite floor, and a granite ceiling bearing a dormant mage hunter golem. Two low flickering torches burn on the left and right sides. Across the room another staircase descends into an identical room with heavy adamantine boxes to either side, storage for the items taken from the prisoners. The air carries tiny near-invisible particles, like dust. Movement displaces them, but the air doesn't seem to shift them. The third floor down contains stairs up and down, and a pair of barred prison cells to the right and left, about 20 by 20 feet each. Both contain bodies in varying states of decomposition. The fourth floor was identical, but one of the cells contained the collared, but still living Yussa Errenis. Not yet explored * The Bedroom * Dining Hall * Carving Farm - Where Halas grows his food. * Guest Chambers * Crystal Mines * Fleshmend Facility - A medical facility where Halas can tend to any wounds. * The Nest * (±75 - unnamed rooms) History The Mighty Nein and Twiggy arrived in the Tapestry Entrance and realized Yasha was not with them. There were two mummified corpses which Caduceus spoke with, learning that they were killed by "the wailing creature" that came from behind the black banner. They pulled the blue and green banners aside, avoiding the green gas by sheltering within Leomund's Tiny Hut. They then pulled aside the red banner, revealing the door. They successfully picked the lock and avoided the flame. Caleb sent Frumpkin into the hallway and the party followed, arriving in The Study. There, the party inspected the portrait above one of the desks, and noticed the red circle on the stained glass window. Fjord touched it and the window loudly shattered, sucking him into a black void and causing him to vanish from the others. The window reformed and closed behind him. Beau and Jester ran up to the window to follow Fjord and noticed a fingerprint on the red dot. Nott and Twiggy checked The Study for information, and were attacked by a mimic disguised as a cabinet. Nott finished it off with one of her “Explosive” arrows. They then continued the search, and found: * A jar of glass beads, a large vial of ink, and a small porcelain doll with oddly realistic hair * A large red leather-bound book with sapphires embedded in the cover * A book titled: Public Debate Records: Forum of Ziedel * A book with a burn mark on the front where a title should be. Before anyone could investigate further, Beau touched the red circle and disappeared with Jester. Twiggy and Caduceus followed them, leaving Caleb and Nott alone in the library. Nott and Caleb continued to look for books, getting two more before they joined the others. Arriving at the exit, Fjord found himself facing a young blue dragon, and attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate with it. When Beau and Jester came in, Beau summoned a fire elemental to attack the dragon by smashing her red elemental gem. Caduceus and Twiggy fell from the ceiling shortly thereafter. Fjord and Beau found the two green-blue crystals down each of the hallways. Beau noticed the groove running on the floor. When Jester cast Hellish Rebuke, the cold energy shot to one of the crystals, and energy from the crystal then ran through the groove in the floor towards the center room pedestal. Fjord cast Armor of Agathys on himself to smash his head so that the other crystal could absorb the cold energy in the same way. Energy running through two grooves in the floor led to another orb in the pedestal. Beau ran to the pedestal orb, reached out, and vanished. The fight continued and when Caleb and Nott finally dropped into the chaos, they saw an angry dragon on fire, the fire elemental, and a four-foot tall Halas (Twiggy using the Disguise Self spell). One after the other, Caduceus, Fjord, Caleb, Nott and Jester ran to the sphere and vanished, leaving Twiggy alone. Twiggy then popped out of hiding and shot the dragon in the heart, killing it. She then ran to the sphere, touched it, and vanished, finding herself with the others back on the Ball-Eater. ' ' Entering The Folding Halls of Halas again to look for Yussa Errenis, the Mighty Nein find themselves in the diamond entrance. Beau smells earth and greenery from the gold arch and they decide to go through it towards The Garden. Upon entering, Beau recognizes the Scribe Mites which attack magic casters. They notice a slight opening behind the waterfall, but begin to hear frogs croaking. Using her Ring of Water Walking, Nott dashes across the pool toward the waterfall and is swallowed by a giant froghemeth rising from the depths of the pool. Caleb casts Fireball, hitting the frog creature and several bullywugs. His use of magic also draws the scribe mites to lightning attack him. In the fight Caduceus also got swallowed, and Caleb cast his new spell, Widogast's Web of Fire. Jester finishes the frog creature scaring the frog-men away. The party discovers all the doorways in this room. While they search, Caleb sends Frumpkin through to The Study and discovers that the books it once held are gone. The party rests on the top of the cliff and uses the mirror to contact Allura Vysoren. She warns them that if there's a Golem Workshop within the Folding Halls, there are also probably roaming golems. They hear heavy approaching footsteps as a metal golem (resembling the figure on the ceiling in the first room) approaches, and quickly dive through the archway. They find themselves standing in the Tower Machine. ' ' The Mighty Nein emerge onto the spiral walkway circling of the Tower Machine. Fjord spots the Arcane Armory island orbiting below. They decide to head down when they hear the heavy footsteps of the golem from the doorway. Running down the spiral with the golem in pursuit, they come to gears that block the pathway entirely. Beau, Nott and Caduceus get over the gears unharmed. Caleb and Fjord get caught in the anti-magic cone from the golem and attack the golem who hit them both and affixes a silencing collar around Caleb. When they leap onto the gear, giant owl Jester, manages to catch them and deposits them on the island of the Arcane Armory. Caduceus manages to Command the golem to turn itself off, and it begins plummeting. Jester, pushes Nott off the edge, and with Feather Fall and Fjord's whip she makes it to the island, and Caleb drags her through the doorway. Jester Polymorphs into a giant eagle and transports the rest of the party to the island and through the doorway. They enter the Arcane Armory through the heavy metal doors. Nott manages to get the collar off of Caleb and Nott notices the trapped floor with three piles of ash on it. Through testing, they discover how they are triggered. Jester flies Caduceus and Caleb across while Beau jumps it. When the golem enters the room, they engage in battle. Caduceus is the first to jump onto the control seat of one of the ballistae and shots it, and Nott follows. They continue to attack the golem with the ballistae and the Commands spell "off". Nott gets the How do you want to do this? with the ballista's acid. Nott unlocks two boxes they found, and Caleb identifies it as a Headband of Intellect, and a Rod of the Solitary Scout. The party takes a long rest, with Fjord standing watch all night outside the dome. When they wake, they contact Allura and she gives them updates on the war. Nott disables the mechanism of the ballistae to lengthen the reload time, and the party run unharmed out of the room trough the doorway. Caleb, in giant eagle form, ferries the party up the Tower to the door they had seen above the entrance. Through the door they enter the Golem Workshop. In the workshop Caleb finds instructions for assembling a golem servant. Over four hours they succeed in building a squat golem that bonds to Caleb and names it "Little Willi". Trough the next door they enter a strange hallway leading to the Experiment Chamber. Nott stealths to the nearest, cracked pillar, and sees the rotting corpse within. Fjord edges along the wall and can see that each pillar contains a warped humanoid shape, resembling Halas but with cancerous growths. A shape drops from the ceiling: a hulking nine-foot-tall humanoid covered in pustules and boils, with four heads and six arms, its face bearing hair and beard reminiscent of Halas. ' ' ' ' References Art: Category:Planes of Existence